A Fishy Companion
by Ushinatta Neko
Summary: Nagisa is probably the strangest pet fish she will ever have. — nagikae, AU.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Hello...lol. It's been such a long time since I posted on ffnet and my writing has probably gone bad but ehhhhh I'll do my best!_

 _Also, sorry for the lame pun on the title HAHA._

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Ansatsu Kyoushitsu. Obviously.**

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"You must be lonely in this house," Yukimura Aguri had remarked, looking around her.

"No," Akari had lied, nursing the cup of tea before her. But her sister was her sister after all, and she had easily seen through the act that Akari had wrapped around herself.

And that was how Akari ended up with a _fish_.

She didn't know how in the world Aguri had come up with the idea of a fishy companion. There were so many other choices, but she received a fish.

Technically it was a fish in a fishbowl, wrapped in a big red bow that seemed to mock her as soon as she stepped home. A card was attached to the bow, and she snatched it off. No doubt it was an April Fools' joke, three months early. That must be it.

 _"Please take good care of Nagisa-kun, Akari-chan! He's VERY shy LOLOLOL!"_ was written in her brother-in-law's elegant cursive, and below that, _"I hope he'll make a good companion. Mine did before he died."_ were the words of her sister.

Akari groaned. It wasn't April Fools.

The fish bubbled in the bowl, as if sensing her incredulity. It stared at her, and she stared back.

The fish moved away to hide behind the miniature trumpet sunk in the sand.

Akari groaned again and sat down on her sofa, hands on her face. This was impossible.

She couldn't even imagine having a second lodger in the house, much less a fish. Why a fish anyway? Just because her sister loved the one she had didn't mean that she necessarily had to take care of a fish too. Sisters were supposedly alike, but she didn't resemble her sister at all.

Akari dialed her sister's house phone, determined to send the fish back somehow.

"Akari! What do you think of the fish! He's cute isn't he! I specifically picked him out for you, thinking that you might like him!"

Akari swallowed down her complaints. They got caught on the way down, like fishbone.

"How do I take care of it, then?"

She couldn't possibly douse her sister's excitement.

So instead, she sprinkled the water with the fish food her sister had sent along.

"Well, it looks like we're stuck together for a while," Akari paused, and made up her mind. "I promise I'll take care of you as best as I can."

She felt silly for saying this to a _fish,_ which probably couldn't understand her anyway, but she always felt more determined about something once she said it out loud. Besides, the fish bubbled her a response, so it wasn't as if she was crazy and was talking to herself...

Akari was the type of person who went through with whatever she set her mind on and it was this quality that pushed her to a higher work position than most of her peers. It was also this work position that kept her busy in a flurry of papers, and she had little time to act on her promise. She barely had time for food, much less take care of her new pet.

And so the fish had to live on one feed every two days for a week, before Akari woke up on a bright Saturday morning and realized with a start how underfed her fish probably was.

She had fallen asleep on her study table, surrounded by papers from work. Assignments had piled up at an alarming rate over the week and she had to resort to bringing some home. It was the sight of the bottle of fish feed that reminded her of her fish. Yawning, Akari slid off the blanket covering her and walked to the fishbowl, the bottle of feed in her hands. She sleepily poured the food into the bowl and put the bottle down beside it.

"Good morning..." Akari remembered the card. "...Nagisa?"

She watched the fish gobble down its breakfast (and apologized inside her mind for pet negligence) and turned to make her own.

But there was already a bowl of porridge lying on the table before her. There was steam floating into the air and it was obviously just made with _human hands._

She was all alone in the house, though. Or supposed to be.

Did someone break into her house and leave a bowl of porridge as an apology? Akari half had the mind to rush around and check if anything was missing, but it also occurred to her that no burglar would be kind enough to leave behind an apology. Did her sister check in on her while she was still sleeping?

Well, that was more plausible. Aguri must have quietly retreated and left her a blanket when she saw her asleep, and made her porridge for breakfast.

Otherwise...Akari didn't dare to consider other options. It was chilling a thought enough that someone was in her house while she was sleeping and she didn't even know. So she sat down, said her thanks, and finished her food.

It was food, after all. She would have to be dumb to reject the offer.

And yet over the next week stranger things happened, things that made Akari reconsider.

She would wake up in the mornings and find breakfast laid upon her table. Sometimes it was pancakes, other times toast, but there was always the plate of food sitting on the wood. It would be there, steam curling innocently in the air, and she would sit down and say her thanks and eat and leave for work, as if there was nothing wrong with that. Yet there was everything wrong with it, and Akari couldn't keep the fear from creeping into her mind.

She tried waking up earlier one morning to catch her mysterious chef but when she crept cautiously down the stairs, there was her breakfast (an egg omelet) waiting for her as always. Akari had peeked into the kitchen and found all her kitchen appliances laid in the same order as always. At first glance everything seemed to be in order, but the early morning rays caught upon a small puddle of water at the entrance.

It confused her infinitely for she was sure there was no such puddle last night, before she went to bed. This must be a clue to her mysterious chef, except Akari could make neither head nor tail of it.

Her fish had then flailed in his bowl, and Akari had hurried over to feed him.

Over the week Akari learnt to confide in her new pet and realized how truly valuable a companion he was. Fish couldn't judge people, after all. Most of the time they just stared aimlessly and silently, which fit Akari just right. She didn't need more people to judge her for who she was. She had had enough of that in her childhood, but her family had been there during those times. Now it was only Aguri left.

Which was why she couldn't worry her. She called Aguri once after the (failed) surprise attack, and asked if she had come over to visit. At that Aguri laughed, confused, and replied that it was going to be finals for her students soon, and _did she really have time to visit her dear sister when she was spending all her time with her students?_ Akari sniffed and said _yes, if she would spend less time in bed with her husband and more with her sister._

Aguri had spluttered at that, embarrassed, and Akari had hung up with a sort of grim satisfaction, turned to her pudding, and continued with the rest of her lunch...

"Yukimura-san, please look over these reports." "Yukimura, check these stats." "Yukimura, re-do this bit."

...lunch that was quickly swapped with the files that lay before her. Akari sighed, and started to methodically work her way through the swamp.

It was past midnight when she had finished. She was the only one left in the office by then, and much as she was tired, Akari had a rule to never sleep in the office. So she turned off the lights, locked up, and made her way home. It wasn't very far and she took little time to reach her house, ready for her three-hour sleep.

Akari paused at the entrance, and looked. The lights in her living room were on. Very bright and obviously on. She assessed the situation in her head. Empty house, late owner, bright lights. All these factors could only lead to one answer: an unwelcomed intruder.

She silently slipped off her heels (because heels made it harder for her to run in case she needed to) and grabbed the umbrella that she had accidentally left by the door. She unlocked the door as quietly as she could and cracked it open, bringing in the night breeze. Akari took a quick look at the entrance. Nothing seemed to be amiss so far. Good.

She crept further in (she briefly laughed in her mind at how she was sneaking in her very own house) and peeked into the living room. So far so good.

She had one foot on the bottom stair when she spied blue at the corner of her eye. Akari frowned. She knew for a fact that there wasn't anything blue in her house except for her fish because blue didn't fit into the color scheme.

She turned and nearly tripped down the stairs in shock.

There was a body draped across her sofa.

A very _naked_ body with blue hair.

She couldn't tell if it was a male or female, based on the androgynous face, until she noticed the addition of some... _parts_ that proclaimed their owner as male.

Akari flushed and tried to breathe through her nose but it was such a difficult matter when there was a naked person sleeping in front of her, in her sofa. So she quietly walked back to the entrance, slid on a pair of comfortable sneakers, and closed the door. She stood there for a while, wondering what the hell had happened.

It was all a hallucination. She was so tired that she had hallucinated seeing a man on her sofa. That must be it.

Akari turned and made her way back to her office. She was going to sleep there and pretend that this never happened. Because this never did, and when she went back home later today, she was going to find _nothing_ sleeping on her sofa.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Hello I'm back again with another chapter! The story isn't actually going to be all fluff and romance...I was looking for the action tag but ffnet doesn't have it, so I went with drama lmao._

 _Actually, supernatural should be there...I don't know._

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It was a good thing that all her colleagues slept in the office on a frequent basis when working overtime and so no one really cared if someone was hogging the floor or two chairs or anything. It still came as a surprise, though, when they found Akari dozing in her office chair. Everyone knew that she didn't like to sleep in the office, and it was a running joke in the department that Akari bought her house just so she could go home and sleep instead of at the office.

(Which wasn't true, but whatever.)

"So, what's the occasion?" Kataoka Megu asked, during their lunch together. "Why are you suddenly sleeping at the office?"

"Nothing," Akari peeled open her pudding and pretended to sulk. "I just worked so late last night that I couldn't be bothered to go home and sleep."

Akari could act convincingly when she wanted to and she wanted to. There was no way she was going to tell _anyone_ about the surprise she found at home. Kataoka nodded, taking the lie at face value.

"By the way, we're having a welcoming party after office hours today," Kataoka added. "Are you going?"

"For who?"

"The newcomer?"

"And...who is that exactly?"

Kataoka prodded her memories gently, knowing that Akari could be absent-minded. "The red-haired one? Akabane Karma?"

"Oh!" Akari flushed, chiding herself for forgetting such an important fact. She had already worked with him for a week, but couldn't even remember his face.

"I don't know. I really want to go home early today..." Akari trailed off, longing for her bed. But the thought of sleeping turned her mind to the sleeping man on her sofa and the tips of her ears turned red.

"But I'll go," She pulled some gossip out of the edges of her memories and covered for her hasty backtrack. "He came from a political background right? Wonder why he changed jobs. Do you think I'll find out when I go?"

But she didn't, and Akari quickly regretted the decision to come to the party. She never had a thing for raucous gatherings, and the party was the personification of raucous. She politely refused the beer and the mic, even though she really, _really_ , wanted to try her luck at the karaoke scoring system. She knew she was better than the drunk men howling into the mic, but she obviously also wasn't going to sing in front of a bunch of drunkards.

She really wanted to go home. Who cared if the naked man was going to sleep on her sofa again? Anything had to be better than the rowdy atmosphere of the karaoke room with its flashy lights and never ending requests for more alcohol. Akari looked around the room and, seeing that the original star of the party wasn't there, set down her fruit juice.

"I'm leaving," she found Kataoka.

"I'm going too. I can't stand the noise."

They quickly packed and left the room amid boos and jeers at them for "running away from the glorious beer". Akari rolled her eyes at that.

Kataoka dashed to the restroom and Akari was left to wander the halls of the karaoke shop. There was someone talking at the end of the corridor and Akari stepped away, trying not to eavesdrop. But the halls were quiet, and there was only that person's voice.

"No no no, what do you mean she saw you?" She recognized the voice and walked closer. It was indeed Akabane.

He was on the phone, a look of utter amusement on his face. Yet that amusement was also tinged with worry. Feeling like she was eavesdropping on some really serious talk, Akari quietly and politely walked away.

"Calm down. There's nothing to worry about — it's all just your speculation."

But the person at the other end was shouting slightly and she could hear every word.

"I mean what I said, Karma! She changed her heels into sneakers! Obviously she came in while I was resting!"

There was a pause as Akabane considered his words.

"Well," he started easily. "I don't know whether to be more worried about you turning into a stalker and knowing what shoes she has or the fact that she saw you unexpectedly."

Akari nearly laughed, but her smile slipped from her face when she heard her name. "Yukimura!"

Kataoka was looking for her. She had wandered too far away from the restrooms. Akabane Karma had heard the call too, and he turned to face her, his face breaking into a neutral smile.

"Hello, Yukimura-san," he greeted, even as he hung up the phone. Akari nodded, determined to hold his gaze even though she was shamefaced at the eavesdropping.

"Hello and goodbye, Akabane-san."

She hurried off, cheeks burning at being caught.

She separated from Kataoka at the train station and walked home, stopping by the twenty-four hour mart to look at the fishbowl decorations. It was high time that she cleaned out the bowl, what with the nice work-free weekend ahead of her. But none of the decorations caught her eye, and she left without buying anything.

She was passing by the construction site near her house when it happened.

 _Crash._

In front of her, a block of cement came dropping down onto the pavement. Akari jumped at the sound, and watched wide-eyed as the block cracked into pieces along with the pavement beneath it. The block crumbled, and she did too.

It was so close. It was _too close._

If she had walked faster, if she hadn't stopped to look at decorations, her head could have been crushed, her spine knocked into two, her very being smashed into smithereens.

Akari sat there in shock for a long, long time.

As she did, she realized that she was alone. Other than the neighbors who had come out to seek out the source of the sound, the pavement was utterly devoid of people. She was all alone, and as she stole a trembling look at the construction site, she saw that it was dark.

"Are you alright?" "How careless!" "You should report this, young girl."

She nodded and smiled, but cold sweat ran down her neck. She could feel it. It was by no means a warm night, but sweat was gathering at her neck. The droplets ran down her back, bringing along a chill that shook her to her bones.

Akari walked home as fast as she could, and locked the door behind her.

She sat down on her sofa, still shaking. Akari clasped her hands together, but the chatter in her teeth and hands wouldn't go away. She knew situations like these. She had acted it out in her childhood, had seen it in movies, had heard of it in the news.

Her fish bubbled.

Akari turned to look at the fish. It was a strange little thing, varying shades of blue all over, and sometimes, she swore that he could sense her emotions. He bubbled again, as if worried.

She smiled shakily and her words came out in a nervous tumble.

"Good evening, Nagisa. Haven't seen you for two days. You must have been wondering where I've been. I slept in the office because I thought I saw a man on my sofa even though there shouldn't be. And on my way back home, someone tried to kill me with a block of cement. Not a very ingenious way to assassinate."

Or, she might be paranoid. It could be an accident. It wasn't like an accident at an empty construction site would be hinting at her assassination, but she knew it was. Somehow, she just knew.

Her fish bubbled a third time, this time as if in alarm.

Akari stood, fed her fish food, and made her way upstairs in a daze. She could feel her fish's gaze on her back, but she had to be wrong. Fish didn't stare at their owner after they left, but in her shocked state, she bore it no thought.

She had a fitful sleep.

Her sleep was plagued by dreams of her childhood, and once, when she woke up in the night, she could almost see light streaming through the bottom of her dreams and hear voices down below. She was alone in her house, though, and before she could think about it, drowsiness pulled her back to sleep.

Another time she could almost feel someone's hand on her hair. She blearily opened her eyes and in the dark, she could make out a human kneeling beside her bed. His fingers were playing with her hair, twisting and turning the strands he held. The figure seemed to be thinking and when he noticed her half-awake state, he bent down to whisper in her ear.

"I'll protect you."

That's when Akari woke up. Her lids flew open and the sunrays filtering through her window hurt her eyes. Something had happened during the night, but she couldn't remember. It was like catching a dream. When she just woke up and wasn't conscious of it, there was still the lingering memories of the night, but when she tried to remember, the remnants slipped through the cracks of her brain and ran away.

All she remembered was that she felt safe. Very, very safe. Safer than she felt with her sister.

She played with the ends of her hair. There was something about her hair, she could remember, but she didn't recall anything else.

Akari sighed. It felt like a nice dream.


End file.
